Diagnostic testing using saliva based tests has made strides in recent years. Most saliva based testing requires substantial amount of oral fluid, on the order of five milliliters or more. New protocols for saliva based testing use small thin pads with antigens or reagents printed into the pads. This form of testing allows for very small amounts of oral fluids to saturate the pads and interact with the printed antigens and reagents causing them to change colors.
These types of testing devices and protocols are idea for use in the field with first responders, EMT, law enforcement, field medical personnel, military, and other personnel who normally administrate diagnostic testing. For example, law enforcement officers who suspect that someone driving a motor vehicle is under the influence will typically administrate a field sobriety test and/or have the individual blow into a portable breathalyzer. Field breathalyzers are notorious for being inaccurate judging by the number of tests disallowed by the courts. The ideal test protocol would be for an arresting officer to transport a suspect to a hospital for drawing blood or for a urine test. The drawback to this is that the body metabolizes approximately an ounce of 80 proof alcohol an hour. The time delay in administering a blood test may be sufficient for the suspect's body to metabolize a sufficient amount of alcohol such that the blood/alcohol ration drops below the level it had been when the suspect was arrested.
A next drawback to blood testing or urine testing is the amount of time it takes to process the sample which can range from hours to days to weeks. Easy to administrate saliva testing using in the mouth testing protocols returns the results in time increments from seconds to a few minutes.
Blood tests for single substances such as alcohol generally cost in the range of 30 to 50 dollars per test. Multiple substance testing quickly raises the cost to hundreds of dollars. Using blood for large screening efforts such as malaria, AIDs, and other debilitating and contagious pathogens quickly becomes unaffordable.
In mouth saliva based testing is relatively inexpensive when compared to blood and urine testing. For example, in mouth saliva based testing for multiple issues simply requires that multiple test pads be placed on a single appliance such as a stick that is placed in a test subject's mouth. If the test stick contains a separate test pad for malaria, AIDs, TB, and cholera. These this bank of tests were to be conducted using blood protocols the results could take weeks and the cost could run to hundreds of dollars. For example, a border patrol agent of any country who apprehends a group of people illegally crossing the border, can administer all of the tests using a single stick with four test pads and have the results within two to three minutes. This allows the agents to segregate a group of people into subgroups of those who have contagious illness of persons who need immediate medical care and those who are healthy.